Kerry Wixted

Connecting Nature & Community

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Bad@ss Babes with Bolas

What if I told you there was a group of spiders in our midst that munch on moths, present themselves as bird poop, and wield their own hand-crafted bolas? Fact or crap? The answer might surprise you! In the Americas, bolas spiders are a group of orb-weaver spiders in the genus Mastophora. They have a
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She is beauty, She is Grace: A Wasp Story

The first time I saw a giant ichneumon wasp (Megarhyssa atrata), I was torn between two worlds. On one hand, my (now) husband and I were still dating, and he had invited me to his annual neighborhood beach party, a gathering of people I didn’t fully know. On the other hand, there she was in
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Save the Snakes

Throughout my career, I’ve worked to advocate for the unloved – those species that are villainized despite the vital roles they play. Over the last decade, I have watched public opinion shift for animals like bats and opossums. Unfortunately, much of that shift has been driven by oversimplified and sometimes false claims. No, bats do
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A wooly white gall with pink spots on an oak.

Oh, the Gall! Gall-making Wasps

Have you seen a weird lump, bump, and/or projection growing off a leaf or stem of a plant? If so, you might have encountered a gall which is an abnormal growth of plant tissue caused by an invertebrate, fungi, and/or bacteria. Gall-making invertebrates secrete chemicals (like proteins) as they feed, causing plant tissue to form
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Jewels of the Wasp World

One group of wasps that captivated me early on are the Chrysididae, or cuckoo wasps. They are jewels of the wasp world, adorned with metallic colors that seem to iridize with light along the pitted design of their exoskeleton. Their colors are complex and are created by light refracting through open spaces between six layers
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Three smiling hikers in front of an Appalachian trail sign
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Maryland Appalachian Trail Adventure

This weekend, we planned a memorial hike for Jonathan’s Dad, Mr. Ed. Mr. Ed loved to hike and camp and was heavily involved in Boy Scouts until his most recent health decline. He and Ms. Judy (his wife) always had a pack of neighborhood kids at the house and quietly kept the ‘fridge full as
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Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice: Meet the Eastern Red Bat

Happy fall! With pumpkin spice season around the corner, I wanted to focus on our pumpkin-colored bat species: the eastern red bat. They are one of 11 species of bats documented in Maryland and are one of the more common ones you can see around Maryland. Eastern red bats are known as ‘tree bats’ since
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